The year 1956 documents a new, great chapter in the history of jazz music: Norman Granz founds his third label, VERVE, manages to win Ella Fitzgerald (who has deserted DECCA) and initiates the Songbook Series which not only attracts a totally new listening public, but also establishes Ella’s reputation as the “First Lady of Song”. The Cole Porter Songbook marks the glorious beginning of a series which finally expanded to seven titles. The recording’s success was practically a foregone conclusion. Porter had written hundreds of wonderful songs from which Granz made an initial choice of 50 songs before Ella and the bandleader and arranger Buddy Bregman finally decided upon what was, for them, the crème de la crème. The result was a list of 32 songs, all of which make easy listening not only thanks to their melodic originality and harmonic genius but particularly to the wonderful amalgamation of the text – which Porter always wrote himself – and the music.

Each and every one is a classic in its own right. Bregman’s arrangements never seek to disguise the fact that all these songs originated on Broadway, and Ella proves her greatness by finding something new in such old favourites as Night and Day, I Love Paris and I Get A Kick Out Of You. And as if that wasn’t enough, Bregman’s orchestra sounds absolutely splendid. What a pity, many will say, that all 50 songs weren’t recorded.


Recording: 7-9 February and 27 March 1956 at Capitol Studios, Hollywood, USA
Production: Norman Granz